Dear Tourism Management Students,
You have started the university education process, which will be the main determinant in realizing your personal and professional goals for the future. You have achieved this by competing with thousands of people in your education and training life, starting from primary education. However, you should not be under the illusion that you have come to the end of the road and you should not be contented. Your real journey begins now.
My dear friends; We live in the information age. The information age requires qualified human resources equipped with scientific knowledge and capable of applying the knowledge they have. Today, raising qualified human resources and presenting them to the labor market play a vital role in protecting and improving the competitive structure of countries, sectors and businesses. Another important task of universities, whose basic mission is to produce knowledge in line with scientific principles and present it to society for use, is to train qualified human resources needed in all fields.
The tourism sector, which is one of the most important sectors in the world, is constantly growing and sector investments are constantly increasing despite economic crises and political instability. Tourism, which is an important sector for our country, creates significant added value in terms of economy with the employment and income volume it creates. On the other hand, the shortage of skilled labor in the sector is still an issue on the agenda. In this context, our department, which started education by taking students in the 2014-2015 academic year, aims to undertake important tasks in closing this gap with the increasing number of students each academic year.
One of the first Tourism Management Departments accredited by TURAK (Tourism Accreditation Board) in Turkey, it is my greatest wish for you to gain an intellectual perspective and improve yourself socially, as well as increase your professional knowledge and skills in Tourism Management during your education in our department. This will also make a great contribution to the improvement of your life quality. The importance given to applied education in the department is an important advantage for students to develop themselves in terms of professional knowledge and skills. In this context, it is an important opportunity for our students to do a workplace internship, which is a part of the curriculum of the department, both in tourism enterprises in the country and abroad (Erasmus agreements, agreement with the German Employment and Employment Agency-ZAV). Reflecting the developments in the field of tourism education both the curriculum and the physical infrastructure of the department are another advantage for our students in terms of keeping track of the developments in the sector.
I greet you with love and respect and wish you success during your education life in the future, We will always support the ways of improving yourself both in the academic and social areas during your education in our department, and will also be a conscious follower of your rights in all administrative and academic relations. I also recommend tourism management candidates for choosing Afyon Kocatepe University Tourism Management department.
Assoc. Prof. Ahmet BAYTOK
Head of Tourism Management Department